Beginners FAQ on sausage making, meat curing etc may often be found at the head of each relevant section, but here is the place to ask experienced users for advice if you are still stuck or need more information...we're here to help!

I'm not saying that the report isn't valid, but it starts with the position of wanting to persuade hornery butchers to do something differently, a difficult task no doubt! It then uses the taste tests to support its own position.

For example it ignores the fact that people said that sausage made the old way had twice the flavour saying that this just refers to the strength of taste not the depth. Sorry, twice the flavour is still no good?

It's aim is to make preservatives more effective - I don't know any home producers that use these. It's aim is to get salt levels below 1.4% - the majority of ours are well below this without difficulty.

They've missed that the easy way to make good sausage is to allow the myosin to develop naturally by adding the salt to the diced meat the night before grinding. I'm currently working on a number of recipes to remove the salt from the spice block so that it can be calculated/applied separately.

I guess I'm agreeing with its ethos, I must be as I'm doing what they set out to achieve already, it's just that I prefer our way of achieving it rather than theirs.

This is part of an FSA campaign. Why they're targeting smaller butchers is anyone's guess it's their buddies in the multinationals they need to be speaking to. The best selling UK sausage has 2.2gm per 100g cooked product. Getting Irish food giant Kerry foods to alter this would have a major effect overnight... ...but do they? Do they squat!

A simple regulation added to food laws would solve this overnight if the will was there, no need for all these fancy schemes.

All very good points and to be honest I was not saying the paper is correct also...just found it interesting. I actually calculated the salt content in my recipes which turn out to be around 1.25/1.3% of total sausage weight.

I may try making the paste this weekend though...I've got a big batch to make and in particular I found the Lincolnshire to be a bit light on taste so i'll see if it makes a difference.

The last point I'll make on adding water to rusk first is that I've found the rusk doesn't seem to absorb all the water and I had some dry rusk in my sausage...my thinking then was to try and avoid this I could add the water to the rusk first.

I used the paste method and it came out just as good flavor as dry seasoning...if anything was easier to mix in.

On the question of water/rusk...I did some with adding dry rusk to the meat and some with adding water to the rusk before adding to the meat mix.I see now why adding the water to the rusk first causes problems....when done this way the rusk became clumpy and was difficult to evenly distribute through the mix. The finished product also had some rusk clumps in it which wasn't bad but not perfect.

Finally I found that my home made rusk took about 1.75>2 parts water. One thing I did notice though was that my sausages were still damp on the outside after hanging for 24hrs...should I be concerned and maybe reduce my water contetnt?

wheels wrote:There's something I'm missing here. I've never have a problem with home-made rusk. I grind the meat, put the rusk on top, the spice mix on top of that, add the water, mix to develop myosin then stuff.

I wonder if you're not cooking the rusk enough? Do you split it and open the two halves mid-way during cooking it?

Phil

For rusk I mix the flour/water/baking power > roll to 1/4" > bake 10 mins at 400F > take out and cut into 1/2" slices > reduce temp to 350F > keep turning every 10 mins until dried out (may even leave in oven overnight with no heat) > put through a food processor to "grind" when cooled > sieve smaller particles > keep processing the bigger

I also tried putting the sticks into the processor while still warm but it left condensation in the processor and seemed to clump together as a result